Shoot me, I’m Arab!
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A little over a week ago, I read a news article that filled me with both fury and sadness. The article was about an American cargo ship, contracted to the United States (U.S.) Navy, that was passing through the Suez Canal when it encountered a group of motorboats with small-time merchants on board selling goods to passing ships. When the U.S. ship saw that scary Arabs were approaching –excuse my editorializing – they assumed that they were, of course, terrorists and so began to fire warning shots towards them. These “warning” shots ended up killing 27-year-old Mohammad Fouad and wounded two others with him on the boat.
In response to this incident, the Egyptian government did exactly what was expected of them – nothing.
The men responsible for the shooting were not even pulled off the ship for investigation. In fact, the whole incident was not officially acknowledged until two days after it had occurred. Which meant that for two days the international media was calling Fouad an “alleged victim of the U.S. Navy,” and saying his death was “claimed to be” a result of the U.S. ship shooting.
Fouad was a victim, except that no one spoke out for him. We Egyptians are all victims because no one will speak out for us. The value of an Egyptian life is worth nothing. We’re born and we die without having anyone defend us. We live with the insecurity that if someone should do us wrong, our rights will undoubtedly be lost because our Egyptian system, the one assigned to protect us, is not only incompetent, but also apathetic.
How else would you explain that a passing foreign ship in our country could shoot and kill an Egyptian citizen based on an assumption, which is in turn based on a stereotype, and suffer no consequences? Don’t you think that the shooter’s decision to take aim and fire at innocent civilians was made a lot easier knowing that he’s in Egypt, and Egypt does not fight for its citizens?
Think of the difference between when an Egyptian citizen’s life is lost and when an American citizen’s life is lost. What would’ve happened if it were the other way around, if it was an Egyptian ship that shot and killed innocent American civilians? Of course, all hell would’ve broken loose and the Egyptian government would’ve been fighting hard for the rights of the American citizen as opposed to not doing anything for the Egyptian citizen.
Aren’t we all human beings? Shouldn’t our lives have the same value?
The purpose of this column is not to attack the American people or to victimize the Egyptian people. It is, however, an attack on both governments and how their idiotic politics wastes lives like Fouad’s everyday. It is also an attempt to give Fouad, and others like him, the justice they deserve.